Defendant Filing Fees in Evictions

Current law establishes a schedule of filing fees for litigants in civil actions in county courts. The bill eliminates the fee for a defendant filing an answer in an eviction proceeding.

Current law permits a party to submit and a county court to grant a motion to waive filing fees in a residential eviction action. The bill removes the process for securing a waiver of these filing fees. Current law prohibits a county court from assessing fees when indigent parties e-file motions, answers, or documents in connection with evictions. The bill removes the reference to indigent parties and instead prohibits a county court from charging defendants fees for filing motions, answers, or other documents in evictions. The If a pro se defendant files an answer or other document physically instead of electronically, the bill requires a county court , on a defendant's behalf, to timely mail copies of any answers or other filings to serve the document on a plaintiff. on a defendant's behalf. The bill prohibits the court from charging a fee related to the mailing service . For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, $122,743 is appropriated to the judicial department from the general fund. The judicial department may use this appropriation as follows:

• $3,623 for general courts administration; and
• $119,120 for information technology infrastructure.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)